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Thursday, April 24, 2014

Harmon Family Obituaries

Here is an obituary for Daniel Harmon Sr., father of the explorer, fur trader and writer Daniel Williams Harmon. Daniel Harmon Sr. was the husband of Lucretia Dewey, the son of Simeon Harmon and Mercy Spencer, and the father of seven sons and a daughter.   From the Middlebury Mercury, Middlebury, Vermont, Wednesday July 3, 1805. p.3.

"At Vergennes, on the 26th ult., Deacon DANIEL HARMON, age 55.  He was born in Suffield, Conn. in 1749 O.S.  In infancy he removed to New-Marlboro, Mass, where he lived till he was eighteen years of age:  he then settled in Bennington, and continued there till 1795, when he removed to Vergennes.  At the last mentioned place, he continued in the office of deacon about ten years.  Blessed with pious parents, he was early instructed in religion, and is supposed to have been converted about the time of his first living at Bennington.  He was zealous and active in the cause of Christ. His death is, in a religious view, a great public loss.  His friends will derive consolation from reflecting on the great piety of his life, and his memory will be cherished by all who are the true friends of Christianity. 
The sweet remembrance of the just
Shall flourish, when they sleep in dust."   


The emphasis on Daniel Sr's strong religious bent confirms what John Spargo recounts in his book Two Bennington-Born Explorers and Makers of Modern Canada about the nature of the family in which Daniel Williams Harmon was raised.

Daniel and his wife Lucretia are buried in the Old Vergennes Cemetery, Vermont.  His grave is weathered and the writing is very faint.  





Daniel Sr.'s widow, Lucretia (Dewey) Harmon, has an obituary in the Vermont Gazette, March 3, 1829, p. 3:

"In Coventry, Vt., Feb. 7th on the 7th day of her sickness, Mrs. Lucretia Harmon, relict of the late Capt. Daniel Harmon, formerly of this town, more recently of Vergennes, aged 76.  Mrs. Harmon was one of the early and most respected inhabitants of Bennington, for very many years a professor of the religion of Jesus Christ, and Member of the Congregational church in this town, and although she appeared in her sickness, to be in a measure deprived of her reason, and the power of speaking to be understood, yet her whole soul was apparently engaged in prayer." 

Of course, when Lucretia is called a "professor" it is not in the teaching sense but in the sense that she professed to be a Christian, and when Daniel is referred to as a "Captain" it's not in the boating sense but referring to his rank in the militia.  It's interesting to know that Lucretia was considered an early resident of Bennington.

Daniel Sr.'s father, Simeon Harmon, predeceased him by only a few years.  Here is his obituary, in the Vermont Gazette, published in Bennington Vermont, Tuesday, August 2, 1803, p. 3:

"DIED]  In Reupert, Mr. Simeon Harmon, formerly of this town, in the 84th year of his age.  He was a member of the church in Bennington, distinguished for his piety, and respected for his probity.  We have not heard the circumstances of his death."


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